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A European Union lawmaker urged member governments Tuesday to open their secret files on UFOs, saying people need to know about close encounters of the third kind.

Mario Borghezio, an Italian member of the European Parliament, told The Associated Press in an e-mail Tuesday that the EU needs its own "X Files" archive where anyone can see information on UFOs — including data gathered by the military. Borghezio said all European governments should go public and stop what he called a "systematic cover-up."

Opening the files is not unprecedented: Last year, Britain published 4,000 pages online on 800 alleged encounters with aliens during the 1980s and 1990s. And over the past three years the British defense ministry has been gradually releasing previously secret UFO papers after facing Freedom of Information demands.

Borghezio also said it is essential to have a scientific center to research unidentified flying objects. Its investigations could have "major scientific and technological spinoffs," he said.

"I think that, under the principle of transparency, the EU member states have a duty to make public and available to all scientific data on UFOs which today are partially or wholly withheld," he wrote in the e-mail.

He is seeking the support of other lawmakers from the 736-member assembly for a statement calling on governments to act.

Video: D.C. meets E.T.

Closed captioning of: D.C. meets E.T.

>>>d.c. meets e.t. in the house square today. forget the banks,
insurance companies
or
big oil
. did you know there's a
ufo
lobby? focused on the implications of human contact with the beyond. and these guys have one goal, they want the
federal government
to spill the beans about any documented knowledge of other life forms. i don't believe that's
real video
you're seeing. this is the only registered lobbyist on the issue. also with wilber allen, a
ufo
enthusiast who takes pictures of the sky up to d.c. you had $5 last time. now you're up to $40. who gave you the other $35?

>>it's had about $20,000 put into it. the aren't organization spent about $300,000 since
1996
pursuing the issue of the
ufo
. a growing movement called the disclosure movement. the goal is simple. to get the
united states government
to finally acknowledge the e.t. presence. formally to its citizens. we think it's coming soon.

>>you have a quote here in the paper that says capital police do a great job, but they are not prepared to deal with
extraterrestrial life
forms. should they be?

>>i believe that they should especially with the history the
united states capitol
has with ufos. an example starting in july of
1952
.
july 16th
to be exact. a squadron of anomalous objects flew by the its
capitol dome
. the encounter i photographed was
july 16th
,
2002
, 50 years after the fact.

>>that's amazing.

>>did they drop off
george w. bush
while they were here?

>>i don't think they did. they may have left george on the moon. i wasn't sure of the type of activity he was involved with with the extraterrestrials.

>>we're not sure either.

>>steven, what do you want a government to do? should we be prepared? should we shoot at them? should we be friendly? what should we do?

>>definitely don't shoot at them. they sequestered this issue for
national security
reasons. i think justifiably back then. that truth embargo ran its course since the
cold war
ended. the basis has evaporated. other nations like france,
united kingdom
, belgium, ben ma denmark are releasing thousands of
ufo files
. a man who walked on the moon has been repeatedly going for the cameras and calling for the end of this embargo and making it clear he thinks the e.t. presence is real.

>>thank you, guys. we have to leave it right there. thank you so much for